The Queen of the South thread

[Greenacres]

I don't like doing this easy for me to have a go but something has to change very quickly with us .

The buck stops with Bartley his recruitment has been very poor far too many young players   it looks like boys v men when we play. 

Okay we have a few injuries as a excuse but with a squad as big as ours we should have players to bring in just as good .

I can hear him now we played well things will change but it is all about results losing 4  in a row is not good enough.

Can we gamble in the hope he gets it right .

 

 

[Slipmat]

Last season a lot of our troubles were blamed on a poor first quarter.  We took 9 points from our first 8 games.

This season we have taken 9 points from our first 8 games.

So it could be argued that our forward thinking manager has us standing still... at best.

[Queens1919]

Its certainly concerning that even if this cove game is a draw tonight, we will be 2 points away from 9th. 3 wins from 8 is poor and those 3 wins wernt exactly comfortable.

Edited September 30, 2023 by Queens1919

[19QOS19]

13 minutes ago, Queens1919 said:

Its certainly concerning that even if this cove game is a draw tonight, we will be 2 points away from 9th. 3 wins from 8 is poor and those 3 wins wernt exactly comfortable.

We won't get an easy win all season as that Annan game tbf. 

[Queens1919]

1 minute ago, 19QOS19 said:

We won't get an easy win all season as that Annan game tbf. 

I agree it finished comfortable, but we didnt equalise till the 60th min. When Reilly missed the pen, i thought it was going to be one of them days and we would get beat 1-0

[19QOS19]

16 minutes ago, Queens1919 said:

I agree it finished comfortable, but we didnt equalise till the 60th min. When Reilly missed the pen, i thought it was going to be one of them days and we would get beat 1-0

I think every QoS fan thought the same. But looking at it objectively/as a neutral it was really comfortable tbh. Can't comment on the other games as I wasn't there. Depressing that I've witnessed a whole 1 victory this season. 

[bod]

We have a manager who thinks he's a lot better than he actually is.

He signed all these youngsters, and picked a team with no experience in it whatsoever.

Was he looking for glory in fielding the youngest ever average age Queens team in the league and hoping for a win?

Yes we have a huge injury list but I would like to know how do many seem to come in training.

Bartley's honeymoon period is definitely over and so far he's very been found wanting. How much longer should he be given?

Edited September 30, 2023 by bod

[Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army]

2 minutes ago, bod said:

We have a manager who thinks he's a lot better than he actually is.

He signed all these youngsters, and picked a team with no experience in it whatsoever.

Was he looking for glory in fielding the youngest ever average age Queens team in the league and hoping for a win?

Yes we have a huge injury list but I would like to know how do many seem to come in training.

Bartley's honeymoon period is definitely over and so far he's very been found wanting. How much longer should he be given?

Honeymoon period passed ages ago. It's at marriage counselling stage. 

Am sure board will persevere with him.

[bod]

9 minutes ago, Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army said:

Honeymoon period passed ages ago. It's at marriage counselling stage. 

Am sure board will persevere with him.

Wouldn't surprise me if he walked.

[Rjc-1988]

5 minutes ago, bod said:

We have a manager who thinks he's a lot better than he actually is.

He signed all these youngsters, and picked a team with no experience in it whatsoever.

Was he looking for glory in fielding the youngest ever average age Queens team in the league and hoping for a win?

Yes we have a huge injury list but I would like to know how do many seem to come in training.

Bartley's honeymoon period is definitely over and so far he's very been found wanting. How much longer should he be given?

That’s my feeling Manager talks as though he has a managerial track record to fall back on - reality is that he is a complete novice, finding his way, and basically trying to find a formula that might get results at this level. These post match “sweeping statements” like “these mistakes will not be tolerated and he will stamp them out” look pretty naive to say the least as they keep happening week after week.

More worrying is our policy of being the last refuge for young players who want to “live the dream” and call themselves FT footballers when they would all be much better getting a job and playing part time. For our model to have any chance of working we need to sign a good nucleus of really seasoned Pros. That costs money but experience would ensure that our game management is decent and we are not continually bullied by old part time Pros who have been round the block a few times.

[Distant Doonhamer]

Just now, Rjc-1988 said:

That’s my feeling Manager talks as though he has a managerial track record to fall back on - reality is that he is a complete novice, finding his way, and basically trying to find a formula that might get results at this level. These post match “sweeping statements” like “these mistakes will not be tolerated and he will stamp them out” look pretty naive to say the least as they keep happening week after week.

More worrying is our policy of being the last refuge for young players who want to “live the dream” and call themselves FT footballers when they would all be much better getting a job and playing part time. For our model to have any chance of working we need to sign a good nucleus of really seasoned Pros. That costs money but experience would ensure that our game management is decent and we are not continually bullied by old part time Pros who have been round the block a few times.

This. 

Team crying out for some seasoned pros, albeit we did have one on the bench today.

Oh for a midfielder who can play a bit but can also add some dig. In short a Stephen McKenna type figure.

 

[Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army]

7 minutes ago, bod said:

Wouldn't surprise me if he walked.

Not sure I'd be all that bothered either way if he did at this stage.

[19QOS19]

1 minute ago, Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army said:

Not sure I'd be all that bothered either way if he did at this stage.

I would be. The list of replacements would be frightening. Happy to give a rookie more time to try and figure it out. 

[Alex Nesovic's Barmy Army]

4 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

I would be. The list of replacements would be frightening. Happy to give a rookie more time to try and figure it out. 

Not saying I'd be celebrating, more apathetic. 

[ALOREBURNE]

9 minutes ago, 19QOS19 said:

I would be. The list of replacements would be frightening. Happy to give a rookie more time to try and figure it out. 

Jobbie McCall  

 

Edited September 30, 2023 by ALOREBURNE

[bod]

I'd give Fowler another go.

[Rjc-1988]

There’s no point changing the Manager because the incumbent would inherit this squad that is packed full of inexperienced “wannabes”. I think we are destined for a season write off unless MB can offload as much of the deadwood at next window and sign some quality ………..no easy task.

We are likely to be miles off play off criteria at that point. That said if Bartley started making better selections, created a better formation and cut out his “total football ideology” we might just see an improvement in results.

[MallanandFlanagan]

I never thought I would say this but I would prefer now if we went back to Part time. Watching this year after year is painful and depressing. At least if we were paying a good part time wage we could attract the best part time players and some of the players might stay for more than a season. At the moment they either leave because they have a good season or leave because they have had a bad season and are moving on. Constant rebuild year after year and no connection to the players anymore. 

[qos_75]

I have had a couple of beers. That said, I don’t think I would  be speaking of turn to say: - wr are fucking shite. 

To those that accept a wage from Queen of the South, I woukd say that  at the moment you are accepting it under false pretences.  

Absolute charlatans. 

[Slipmat]

25 minutes ago, Rjc-1988 said:

There’s no point changing the Manager because the incumbent would inherit this squad that is packed full of inexperienced “wannabes”. I think we are destined for a season write off unless MB can offload as much of the deadwood at next window and sign some quality ………..no easy task.

We are likely to be miles off play off criteria at that point. That said if Bartley started making better selections, created a better formation and cut out his “total football ideology” we might just see an improvement in results.

Totally agree with you regarding experience, or the lack of to be more accurate.

Bartley has, as he put it, gone for a (very) young squad "by design" and filled the team with players with next to no first team experience whatsoever.  Ambrose, McKay, Cochrane, McGuffie, Todd and Reilly are the only players at the club who have played more than 75 league games throughout their entire careers (if my calculations are correct).  Signing a gang of 18 and 19 year olds from youth football and expecting them to out-think and outplay guys like Tidser, O'Ware and Jason Thomson, the latter who has been playing for longer than many of our players have been alive, is wishful thinking at best. 

The manager comes across in interviews as a hardline taskmaster who won't stand for any shirking or nonsense yet seems to have created a team that is somewhat indisciplined, to put it kindly.  Witness McClelland's card collection or the 4 yellow cards issued in injury time against Hamilton.  Again, a lack of experience all round.

I'll concede we have been hit badly with injuries (though most have been picked up in training), but Bartley has by and large stuck with the same formation in every game and same style of play* - and we have yet to keep a clean sheet in any game.  Is he unable or unwilling to change his thinking - maybe a degree stubbornness creeping in?  Rather than experiment with, say, Logan as a left-back or Gibson a LWB, or freezing Houston out for a month, should he not be choosing a system which is suited to the players he has available rather than fitting whoever is available into his chosen formation?  Or varying the formation depending on results and opponents?  A central midfield today of Cochrane, Johnstone & Ferguson was bizarre to say the least.

* albeit with much more negative approach against Falkirk and Hamilton.